Hey guys, just as an FYI, alpha is going to start Monday rather than today -- there are just some things that still need to be cleaned up before you play it, mainly bot stats getting better polished today. But also the "potions-style computers" mechanic I'd like to get in before you play it. These things affect balance and the feel of the game, so I'd rather have that close to finalized (tweaking based on player feedback aside, obviously) before people start going hands-on with it. I thought that might be done early today, but instead it looks like it will be late today and/or over the weekend.

Monday is looking good, though!

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Roguelikes, easily one of my favorite (if most infuriating at times) genres.

I shall be responsible for your annihilation of many input devices!

Though I did tell Chris about the whole "start mission, spawn in position covered by multiple gamma-ray-laser 'bots, take casualties upon first action" thing. Which would have been classic ragelike material. Ah well, there'll be more

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I wanted to make a suggestion on the cities, you said there would be five? I think that it would be nice to have 'city specific' issues that happen when in that particular environment.

Say Port City is close to the waterfront, naturally, but that also means that any given mission in that city has to contend with water related issues, perhaps moisture in the environments, or high humidity in the summer... all leading to electrical breakdowns or shorts which stop guns or navigation or bot functionality completely.

Or rust of critical parts over several missions, say three missions, causing those parts to have to be replaced, for future missions that have nothing to do with the 'bugs' of any of the given 'bots, or any or the perks of the given 'commanders'.

So,

1. Electrical shorts or rust, leading to mis-shots, nav failure or bot failure, and part replacement due to moisture, in Port City.

2. Tech issues in New Reno, instead of weather related issues, where bots have to contend with a highly saturated environment of cameras and remote control systems. (These missions might concentrate on 'timed' or speed runs through a given mission space, where xx seconds is noted and used for either pass/fail of mission, or more interesting in my mind, would be to have those speed scores count as a ladder score for comparing the best run players.

3. Deep Vaults in Impregnable City or Fortress City, where the player is getting closer to say the core of the system that is controlling the bots. So in this sense each city is a step from not knowing anything, to knowing who the controller is (one of the commanders is the hidden baddie?) But anyway, this city is concerned with having remote control of doors and tons of bots, (that can be de-activated, if a switch in the level is reached in time.) where the players bots acquire information or clues or tech reports that lead to upgrades and new computer abilities for the players bots. These missions might get progressively harder, requiring careful thought to the weapons and modules equipped for these missions, moreso than other cities. Also, the missions might have to be taken in a sequential manner, rather than the free-form way of other cities.

4. Tech City is where all the missions are 'sensors only' missions, in almost pitch black environments, where each 'sensor' module has to be 'repaired' after each mission into a corrosive environment of acidic gas that is designed to slow and stop outsider robots. Where the player has to use some chemical coating or plating to the outside of the bot to keep it functional. Perhaps it is possible if enough 'coating' material is not found in each mission type that the city cannot be completed in this run, perhaps a 'scrub', deleting of this set of missions is needed and then come back and start with a different set of nodules to get through the entire 10 mission set for that city?

5. Twin Cities is where the players bots, one AI'ed and tied to the players bot, which is controlled by the player is used to complete a mission, say one bot is used to get to the laser cannon de-activation switch on the east side of the mission area, while on the opposite side, the doors have a ten second timer where they will close again. So the AI bot goes for the switch, or the door, as the player chooses, and the players bot has to get through the de-activated area to acquire the mission objective. Perhaps parts or upgrades or information that leads to controlling doors or systems in other missions, or even in other cities, perhaps specified in the tech spec for the description.

Anyway, these are just ideas for what i think would add some difference from city to city instead of a repeat of the same mechanics from city to city.

Thanks for listening,

Just wanted to say the pics and the video all look super! And that looking forward to trying the game out.

Sorry, the cities vary specifically by how the nodes are laid out and what the visuals are only. Generally speaking our feature set is complete, we're not adding massive new systems like that at this point. It's quite far along as a game!

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Have ideas or bug reports for one of our games? Mantis for Suggestions and Bug Reports. Thanks for helping to make our games better!

Not a worry at all. You're not a pain, you just often have different ideas from what we're going for. But not always! So it doesn't hurt to check, or even just write down your thoughts for your own sake.

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Have ideas or bug reports for one of our games? Mantis for Suggestions and Bug Reports. Thanks for helping to make our games better!

Roguelikes, easily one of my favorite (if most infuriating at times) genres.

I shall be responsible for your annihilation of many input devices!

Though I did tell Chris about the whole "start mission, spawn in position covered by multiple gamma-ray-laser 'bots, take casualties upon first action" thing. Which would have been classic ragelike material. Ah well, there'll be more

Yes, I'm sure the game will be coming up with plenty of other "start, die, rage" scenarios, losing just the one wont hurt it much :p

Roguelikes, easily one of my favorite (if most infuriating at times) genres.

I shall be responsible for your annihilation of many input devices!

Though I did tell Chris about the whole "start mission, spawn in position covered by multiple gamma-ray-laser 'bots, take casualties upon first action" thing. Which would have been classic ragelike material. Ah well, there'll be more

Yes, I'm sure the game will be coming up with plenty of other "start, die, rage" scenarios, losing just the one wont hurt it much :p

....and I'll end up stumbling into pretty much all of them, likely.

You're not really getting the full "Arcen Customer Satisfaction Experience(TM)" unless you do.